Valeria And The Big Empty
by Jumpman87
Summary: It will take all of Valeria's mutant abilities to escape the clutches of Dala and the madness of the Big Empty. Rated T for violence.


Night had fallen over a vast crater in what was once southern California. The sky blazed with stars and a desert wind moaned across the ruins scattered about the bowl. Movement among the jagged rocks and shattered concrete walls revealed life that still clung to the blasted ruins.

Three humans in filthy coveralls made their way through the rocky hills jutting from the crater floor. They wore crude masks and carried spears tipped with white ceramic blades. The gaunt humans were hunting, the need to find food driving them into the mutant infested bowl. None had names and only a vague need for companionship kept them together. If no prey was found, the need to survive would make on of their number the quarry. Able to communicate only by grunts and growls, the humans crouched silently looking for prey…or predators.

Hazards were many in the crater and death could come suddenly from any direction. In the jagged hills of the crater's rim lurked giant mutant Tarantula Hawk Wasps called Cazadores. They would swoop down the rocky slopes in a controlled glide to paralyze prey with their abdominal stingers. Fortunate victims would lay helpless as the huge wasps drained them to withered husks. The less fortunate would be implanted with larvae and buried alive to feed the Cazadores' young.

Cazadores weren't the only genetic abomination roaming the crater. Savage packs of Coyote and Rattlesnake hybrids called Nightstalkers lurked in the darkness, their howls echoing off the peaks as they searched for prey. Anything moving at night learned quickly to be wary of the sinister rattling of the hybrid's tails. The sound meant agonizing death from fangs oozing venom was only seconds away.

And then there were the technological hazards still following their programmed missions two hundred years after the world ended in nuclear fire. Rusting Securitrons, Protectrons, Mr. Gutsy's and Sentrybots patrolled the ruins attacking anything that moved with bullets, rockets, and blasts of plasma and laser fire. Similar to the robots were the humans that had been captured by the crater's automated defenses. Their scarred heads were mute testaments to procedures that replaced parts of their brains with cybernetic implants. Reduced to beasts and called Lobotomites, the human's lives were brutish and short, interrupted only by programmed imperatives to repair the crumbling facilities dotting the basin.

The hunting party moved down a narrow path in the shadow of a peak with decaying radio towers jutting from it. Suddenly the sound of falling pebbles made them look up as a shadow dropped from above. Two leaped aside while the third tripped and fell shrieking and thrashing down the slope. The Lobotomite's attacker landed in a crouch and snarled, the moonlight gleaming off its staring white eyes and gleaming fangs. With hoarse cries the two remaining hunters charged slashing with their spears. The creature ducked under a wild swing, then lunged forward seizing a Lobotomite by the throat and whirling to impale him on the other hunter's spear. Her spear trapped, the last Lobotomite drew a kitchen knife and charged with a shriek that turned into a gurgle as a taloned hand smashed into her sternum. The Lobotomites were still twitching in pools of blood when their attacker tore into them with teeth and claws.

"Ooooooh, so…savage." A distorted electronic voice intoned, audible only to the creature. "The way you dismember Lobotomites and consume their…flesh. So revolting yet so…fascinating."

Its hunger sated, the creature stood upright revealing the massive naked form of a woman covered with blood and filth. Alert for other predators she pulled a crude mask down over her fanged mouth. Like the Lobotomites scattered about, the woman's head was crisscrossed with scars from the procedures that rendered her mute and subservient to the voice.

"Such a good Teddy Bear." The voice said soothingly. "You remembered to replace your mask. Your face meat, writhing like slugs on your skull. So…repulsive…mustn't experience too…much…at once." The voice began to speak more rapidly as its excitement increased. "Your biological imperatives have been met, now be a good Teddy Bear, listen to Dala and return to the Village. Other predators will arrive soon and I can't have you damaged."

With no sign of acknowledgment, the huge Lobotomite began to run down the path to the plain below. Finally she reached a ledge and leaped on one of the huge pipes connecting the structures littering the baked clay of the crater floor. The largest were two domes dominating the northern and southern sectors. The blue lights of the northern dome and the crimson glow of the southern provided dim illumination for the crater even on moonless nights.

Moving with tireless stamina, the Lobotomite ran along the pipe above pools of contaminated water glowing a sickly green and the decaying hulks of vehicles and robots. Finally the pipe approached a massive concrete structure built into the jagged rim of the crater. Its walls were supported by flying buttresses formed of steel girders red with rust. The Lobotomite leaped from the pipe, landing effortlessly on the packed clay twenty feet below. The only entrance was a massive steel door that slid open with a screech and a clang as she approached. As soon as she entered the door closed with a boom and she stared blankly as she waited for more instructions.

"Oooooh." Dala sighed in her mind. "Exertion is causing you to…respirate at an elevated level! You must get to the house so I can study the phenomena at the monitor!"

The woman didn't move as she stared at a cluster of two-story houses built in a ring around a dry fountain. The scene could have been from any small suburban cul-de-sac except for the roof of rusting steel plates blocking out the stars. Something about the tableau was causing something to stir within the blank static filling the woman's mind.

"Lobotomite!" Dala ordered. "Return to the house!"

Still immobile, the woman squeezed her eyes shut as an image flashed into her mind with painful intensity. It was a similar ring of houses but in stark black and white. Suddenly the face of a little girl with very old eyes appeared accompanied with unaccustomed emotion.

"You are growling Lobotomite." Dala observed impatiently. "Fascinating. You are defying my orders and acting in a totally spontaneous fashion. Perhaps the implants meant to enhance your performance are having unanticipated side effects. This must be studied further, but first we need…observation."

The woman turned and began to walk around the fountain, and then stopped in front a house where she stared at a faded number painted on the door.

"This is not house 104 Lobotomite." Dala said with growing irritation. "Perhaps you are exhibiting the same random patterns I have witnessed in other Lobotomites."

The Lobotomite ignored Dala, instead staring intently at the number "101". Like an approaching storm, images like flashes of lightning were filling her mind. The faces of men and women were appearing accompanied by disorienting bursts of emotion. Each face was mouthing something, a word that seemed to be repeated over and over. The Lobotomite reached toward the door, tracing the peeling paint of the number with a clawed finger as if it would help her hear the words.

"Now Lobotomite!"

The woman staggered then slowly straightened. She than turned to another house across the fountain and began to walk toward it. Marked with the number "104", the Lobotomite didn't hesitate and opened the door. Inside was a dimly lit living room with walls covered with peeling wallpaper and furniture slowly succumbing to dry rot.

"Upstairs my Teddy Bear." Dala said in a breathless voice. "Stand before the monitor."

The Lobotomite did as she had been ordered many times before and climbed the stairs. At the top was a short hallway illuminated by a flickering blue light from what was once a side office. The Lobotomite entered the bare room and stopped in front of a long wall screen dominated by the flickering blue image of a human eye. The eye moved to center on her and Dala's voice spoke again.

"Yeeees my Teddy Bear." She crooned. "Just stand there and perform respiration." The Lobotomite did as she was told, her white eyes staring at the monitor through the holes in her mask. The image on the wall twitched as minutes passed. Finally Dala spoke, her voice distant and thoughtful.

"How strange to…breathe. To feel oxygen rushing through one's orifices, inflating and deflating the chest cavity like a disgusting… flesh balloon." Dala hummed for a minute before continuing.

"Raise your arms above your head Lobotomite."

The woman raised her arms and the eye twitched over her huge body.

"Clasp your hands together…yes, like that. Now stretch yourself…slowly." The woman did so and an electric hum began to sound in her mind as the eye twitched rapidly.

"That's enough Teddy Bear. Tomorrow you will finally fulfill the purpose for which you were created. Despite your inexplicable lapses into random patterns, you are still the best specimen for what needs to be done." The woman stared blankly, with no sign she understood what Dala was saying.

"It is time for you to sleep." Dala ordered and the woman turned and walked to the bedroom. The room was as dark as the rest of the house, but the Lobotomite's eyes adjusted quickly and she had little difficulty navigating around the tattered piles of silk and linen strewn on the floor. When Dala first brought the Lobotomite to the Village, she had insisted the woman open the cabinets and put on the spring dresses and silk nightwear hanging inside. The clothes were brittle with rot and meant for someone smaller. Dala had the Lobotomite wear them anyway, destroying them.

The room was dominated by a four poster canopied bed covered with stuffed toy bears in varying stages of decay. The woman lay her huge body on the bed among them and stared blankly at the dark folds of cloth above her.

"What is it like to sleep?" Dala mused. "So inefficient and unproductive, but so tantalizingly strange." She paused as the Lobotomite continued to stare at the canopy.

"To sleep, perchance to dream…what an odd saying. What is it to…dream? Do Lobotomites have the capacity I wonder? This will require study if matters are resolved satisfactorily. Good night…Teddy Bear." And Dala's voice faded into the background static that constantly buzzed in the Lobotomite's mind.

The woman continued to stare blankly, then her arm slowly raised with a long black nailed finger outstretched. After a moment she began to trace the outline of the numbers that suddenly fascinated her. Over and over she traced "101" as images began to flash in her mind once again. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand what the faces were saying. Her mouth began to work behind the mask as she began to imitate the images, trying to bring forth sounds other then growls and grunts.

Suddenly her voice sounded in the room, raspy from long disuse. "V…V…" She snarled in frustration. She was close, but it still wasn't right. Again she began to trace the numbers in the air, angrily jabbing her finger. The face of an older man in a white coat appeared before her. His eyes made her feel inexplicably happy, but also deeply saddened. She grasped at the emotions as if drowning and seizing a life preserver.

"V…V…Val…Val…Valeria." She felt a surge of inexplicable joy when she croaked out the last word. It was right, she knew without any doubt that it was right. She also realized its meaning. Valeria was her name. Her face stretched into an unaccustomed smile as Valeria clutched her name to her as if it was one of the teddy bears.

* * *

"Time to awaken Teddy Bear."

Valeria looked about in confusion, still lost in unaccustomed dreams. Normally Valeria's sleep was a black void filled with static, but with the realization of her name came an unending flood of subconscious images.

"I observed an unusual amount of REM in your sleep state." Dala said as Valeria sat up and swung her legs off the decaying sheets. "I have never seen such brain activity in a Lobotomite. Perhaps I have made a discovery in my cerebral implant procedure.

As Dala spoke, Valeria stood from the bed and waited motionless for further instructions.

"You must come to me in the Think Tank but first you need to stretch after a night of immobility. Flesh creatures must do this to improve…circulation. Come to the monitor and stretch for me."

Valeria turned and walked out of the bedroom and entered the office where once again she stood before the eye. On Dala's instruction, she began to perform a range of motions as the eye flickered and moved over the play of muscles on her huge body.

"Your blood…should be flowing…through your veins now." Dala cooed as Valeria finished and stood silently at attention once more. "Now you must come to me at the dome. Hurry now Lobotomite."

Valeria turned and left the room, soon exiting the steel door sealing the Village within the hanger. In matters of survival, Valeria was able to work without any direction from Dala. In the indeterminate time she had spent roaming the crater at Dala's bequest she had learned of the many hazards of what Dala referred to as "Big Mountain." Dala's will kept Valeria away from the bulbous antennas rising from the peaks ringing crater. She never explained why Valeria wasn't permitted to approach the perimeter, only saying it was forbidden.

Once out of the hanger, Valeria paused, looking about in the chill dawn for any movement. In the distance she could hear the yipping of the Nightstalkers as the rising sun sent them back to their burrows.

"The Nightstalkers were one of Dr. Boros' greatest successes." Dala informed Valeria as she climbed up onto the massive pipes running above the floor of the crater. Valeria had soon learned that one of the safer ways to travel was along the pipes, above the reach of many of the predators.

"We had told him that splicing rattlesnake DNA with that of Coyotes was impossible, but such criticisms always spurred him to greater efforts, as it did for us all." Dala continued to reflect as Valeria began to run along the pipe toward the blue glowing dome in the distance.

"He succeeded in his ambition, but as always his results were flawed." Dala continued, her electronic voice smug. "He assured us that they were incapable of breeding, but their greater numbers refutes that conclusion. I wonder if Dr. Boros is aware enough to realize his failure?" Dala hummed for a moment in satisfaction as Valeria began to cross over a dry ravine, the sounds of her bare feet on the hollow pipe echoing in the still air.

The massive dome of the Think Tank loomed above as Dala directed her toward another steel door. Valeria stood before it as an electronic alarm buzzed, and with a series of clangs the door slid open. Before her was a small room with a ramp leading up.

"Come up the ramp my dear Teddy Bear. It is time we met."

Valeria entered the ramp and climbed into a huge chamber lit only by the light of monitors along the curve of the back wall. The vaulted ceiling was clearly the interior of the dome and Valeria stopped for a moment to look up, taken by an unaccustomed feeling of curiosity.

"Turn to face me Lobotomite." Dala ordered, her voice echoing from the vast walls of the chamber. Valeria turned and saw a huge wall monitor running along the curve of the dome dominated by the vast image of the eye she saw in the Village. The eye looked down on her and Dala spoke.

"You are the first Lobotomite to stand in my presence Teddy Bear. I am Big Mountain and Big Mountain is I. I am the last of the great minds of the Think Tank, the final executor of our vision of unfettered scientific innovation."

Valeria stared up at the giant eye as it looked away from her. Lost in memories, Dala continued to speak as she ignored Valeria.

"There were six of us then. Klein, Borous, O, Eight, myself and…Mobius." The last name was spoken with a hiss of hatred. "Before the great static we wrought wonders at Big Mountain, but we were limited by the frailties of our own fleshy beings. I created the process by which our brains could be freed from the hormonal drives of our flesh and gain immortality. Yet I was not satisfied. Wondrous as our brains were, they were still chained by the limits of our biological natures. I knew that the only way to achieve true mastery of science was to integrate our consciousness into machines. Only with the purity of silicon, the speed of electrons could we be truly free."

Valeria watched the eye focused on her once more. "Mobius lacked my vision and opposed my work, but I continued in secret until one day I was ready. I integrated my consciousness into the mainframe of Big Mountain and freed myself from all vestiges of frailty and mortality. Once I achieved my transformation, I could see how flawed and damaged my former colleagues were. Mobius fled, too lost in his petty desires to acknowledge the greatness of my achievement. The others stayed, hoping to become as I, but I was aware of their treachery. Mobius was cunning and I knew he had subverted them." Dala's voice began to become shrill as her agitation grew.

"I offered to free them as well, and the fools walked into my trap. I drained their knowledge into my memory banks and discarded their personalities like wrappers. All except Dr. Borous…" Dala's voice dropped into a hiss. "When he was a man, he would steal my teddy bears and dissect them in his basement, when he wasn't experimenting on his dog Gabe that is." Dala giggled then continued. "I took his knowledge and put what was left of his mind into Gabe Cut up my beloved Teddy Bears would he. I showed him!" The dome shook with Dala's shrill laughter as Valeria continued to stand and stare up at the monitor.

"All that was left was Mobius." Dala whispered "But he fled to the X-42 Robowarfare facility. The Lobotomites were too mindless to penetrate his defenses. Then you arrived. When my medibots brought you to the facility they brought a mystery as well. Your DNA is a quadruple helix, a phenomenon never seen in nature. If a being such as you could exist outside of Big Mountain, than there must be more than radioactive waste beyond the rim! Big Mountain is too small now, you showed me that there is an entire world for me to expand into and experiment on. Soon I will be the master of the Earth and all of Science!"

The dome echoed from Dala's shout of triumph, then her voice dropped into a hiss. "All that stands in my way is Mobius. I need you to enter the X-42 Facility and end his existence!"

"Turn Lobotomite!" Dala demanded. "Open the container behind you!"

Valeria turned and saw a steel trunk under the first tier of monitors along the back of the dome.

"It contains what you were carrying when you were brought to me. It has all been cleaned and repaired for your use, except the…Pipboy." Dala spat the word out as if she had tasted something foul. "Vault Tec trash will never be allowed into Big Mountain, and I had that vile device destroyed." At that announcement, Valeria's eyes closed as she felt an unexpected surge of sadness. Somehow, the "Pipboy" had meant something to her, and she felt its loss.

"Open the chest and put on the armor!" Dala ordered and Valeria moved to obey. As she pulled out each piece, she found herself putting it on without question or hesitation, as if she had performed the actions many times before. When she had donned every piece, she paused as she experienced a feeling of…comfort. There was something intimately familiar about the armor, and it felt secure and right. One last item lay at the bottom of the chest, and Valeria reached in to lift out a massive steel Super Sledge. She felt it's familiar weight in her hands and once again had the feeling of familiarity and "rightness". Without thinking, she effortlessly slung the massive weapon on her back and stood waiting for Dala's next order.

"Now Lobotomite!" Dala's voice boomed. "I order you to take that primitive weapon and destroy Mobius!"

* * *

Valeria's boots splashed through radioactive muck as she ran with all the speed she could muster. Close behind a pack of Nightstalkers was closing, poison dripping from their fangs as their lidless eyes stared with cold reptilian cunning. The pipes Valeria used to travel with relative safety entered the ground near the twisting canyons of the Forbidden Zone. Having no alternatives, Valeria had descended to the crater floor and began to walk across the cracked earth. That was when the morning stillness was broken by the sound of rattling and she spotted a cluster of sinuous shapes loping toward her astonishing speed.

"Run Teddy Bear!" Dala ordered needlessly as Valeria turned and ran. She had encountered Nightstalkers before, and their poison although painful was not life threatening to her cybernetic and genetically augmented metabolism. The danger was when they attacked her from all sides attempting to seize her limbs and drag her to the ground. Suddenly Valeria saw a jagged concrete wall jutting from the ground and sprinted toward it.

"What are you doing?" Dala shrilled as Valeria whirled to face the Nightstalkers, her back temporarily protected by the wall. One was already in mid-leap when Valeria's hammer swatted it out of the air. The mutant hit the ground thrashing and howling when another leaped for her abdomen in an attempt to disembowel her. Valeria lashed out with her boot, crushing its throat and dropping it writhing in silent agony. The others hung back, hackles raised on their scaly backs, looking for an opening as their tails rattled incessantly.

"Run you mindless Lobotomite!" Dala ordered, but Valeria ignored her master. If she tried to flee she knew the Nightstalkers would be on her in moments. She was safe for the moment, and her eyes darted about looking for any means of escape. Suddenly the Nightstalkers tails went still and they all raised their reptilian heads, their nasal pits flaring as they sniffed the air.

A howl magnified a hundred-hold suddenly tore through the air, staggering Valeria with its sonic fury. The Nightstalkers were scattered like leaves in a hurricane as Valeria squeezed her eyes shut and fought a wave of nausea while powdered debris showered down on her. She forced her eyes open to see the Nightstalkers fleeing, and then heard a thundering growl from her right. Whirling, Valeria found herself eye to eye with a giant black hound, its legs and back gleaming with exposed steel and its eyes burning with the same red glow as its dome encased brain.

"Boros!" Dala shrilled as Valeria leaped back, the hound's foaming jaws snapping shut on empty air.

"The sonic howl needs to recharge, flee Lobotomite!" Dala shrieked and Valeria turned and ran with all the speed her powerful legs could muster. Boros hesitated an instant, then with a howl leaped after her, his cybernetic legs whirring with exertion. Valeria knew she only had one chance before Boros ran her down, and with his breath searing her back she didn't hesitate when the ground dropped away and she leaped into space. Valeria slammed into the opposite wall of a canyon then hurtled down in a shower of dirt. Suddenly her plunge was brutally halted by a massive pipe protruding from the canyon walls. Valeria gasped in agony as she rolled off the rusting steel and tumbled onto a rocky slope below, sliding to the bottom of the canyon in a shower of stones. Boros glared down from the canyon rim far above, then with a howl of rage turned and loped out of sight.

"My former colleague has clearly suffered considerable cognitive degradation since being implanted in his pet Gable" Dala mused as Valeria climbed painfully to her feet. "I wonder if he is even aware of his condition?"

Valeria hissed as she felt torn muscles and skin begin to painfully repair itself.

"You have come much closer to the X-42 facility than any other Lobotomite. Your…flesh is damaged but your regenerative abilities and the Monocyte Breeder implants should sustain you."

Valeria said nothing as she retrieved her hammer and limped down the narrow gorge, luridly lit by glowing red crystals jutting from the canyon walls.

"We are almost to the facility Teddy Bear, but be wary of…" Dala's warning was lost as a voice boomed through the canyon.

"I see you! Now I end you!"

Three Mr. Gutsy robots were advancing toward Valeria, their spherical bodies bristling with sensors and weapons attached to articulated arms. Green bursts of superheated plasma erupted toward Valeria as she leaped to attack. A memory had leaped unbidden into her mind, of her facing other such foes with a bewildering array of shapes and armament. She knew the only way she could win was to use her speed and agility to get in close before the robots could adapt their targeting systems.

Her first blow sent a robot spinning, it's plasma weapon bathing another robot in green fire before both smashed into the canyon wall. Valeria used her momentum to launch herself into the air, bringing her hammer down on the last robot in a huge overhand arc. It's steel chassis crumpled like foil as her hammer smashed it to the ground in an explosion of crackling electricity and flames. She wrenched her weapon out of the robot, than whirled as a plasma blast signed her hair. One robot remained, its silver hull seared black as it advanced trying to adjust its aim. Valeria swung her hammer over her head and flung it with a shriek. Unable to dodge, the robot went down with thirty pounds of titanium imbedded in it.

"Ooooh, your crude violence is so…intoxicating." Dala crooned as Valeria limped forward to recover her hammer. "But we must hurry. The X-42 installation was Big Mountain's Robowarfare facility and Mobius' minions will be legion. We have little time before he gathers his forces."  
Valeria continued to limp though the canyon, her hammer ready as her eyes peered through the holes in her mask, searching for more opponents. Suddenly they came to a huge concrete lined tunnel through the canyon wall. Set into one of the walls was a massive steel door with "X-42" inscribed above it in bold white letters.

"This is the entrance to the Robowarfare facility. Be wary teddy bear, Mobius is cunning and duplicitous. I have no access to the facility and cannot advise you as to what robot minions and traps await us."

Valeria stepped forward and the door began to rattle and clang before sliding open.

"Mobius left the door open? Why? Has he gone mad?"

As Dala babbled in confusion, Valeria stepped through the opening still following the last directive she had been given.

"Teddy Bear wait!" Dala ordered as Valeria entered the dim interior. Suddenly with a boom the door slammed shut and abruptly the constant static in her mind went silent. Valeria stopped and shook her head, disoriented by the sudden absence of Dala's voice.  
She turned and stepped toward the door but this time it remained closed. Valeria stared at it, then again shook her head. Gripping her hammer she turned to face a darkened ramp and resolutely strode forward to face Mobius.

The room beyond was a vast chamber shrouded in gloom dominated by the huge inert hulk of a robot shaped vaguely like a Radscorpion. Valeria paused and raised her hammer, then lowered it when she realized the robot had been inert for years. Her footsteps echoed as she walked around the wreck, noting holes melted from energy weapons under the coating of dust. All of Valeria's senses were telling her that the factory was empty of anything but dust and shadows. Feeling an unaccustomed sense of unease, Valeria climbed a steel stair to a platform before another door, which appeared to be the only exit. As with the door outside, this one also opened at her approach revealing another ramp rising into darkness. This time Valeria didn't pause as she strode through.

At the top of the Ramp was a domed chamber identical to the Think Tank but filled with signs of neglect and decay. The only light was a sickly green glow from the few active monitors among banks of silent darkness. The inert chassis of a Robobrain stood nearby, its arms limp at its sides, its brain dome empty and dark. Valeria warily looked about for any signs of activity, than noticed markings on the floor. Kneeling down she saw the floor was covered with signs and symbols scrawled in all directions, many drawn over earlier markings in an indecipherable tangle. Valeria traced a symbol with a taloned nail, her eyes blank with incomprehension when she heard a hum from above. Whirling she looked up into a projected eye that vanished in a blinding flash and a piercing shriek.

Valeria clapped her hands to her ears and screamed as her head exploded with pain, driving her to her knees. As suddenly as it began the screech ceased leaving Valeria gagging on the floor.

"Hmm." Wavered a voice above her. "I wasn't certain that would work."

Gasping and coughing, Valeria pushed up from the floor and looked upward. Floating above her was a sphere containing bubbling liquid with a brain illuminated by a sickly yellow light. Three monitors attached by mechanical arms to the sphere bobbed before her. One had the image of an eye another had the image of a mouth, the third hung inactive and dark.

"That looked uncomfortable." Said the brain. "I wasn't sure what the effect of a data transmission on a sonic carrier wave would have on your cerebral implants."

"What did you do?" Valeria croaked.

"Oh…to put it another way I broadcasted the memories I captured from Dala's cerebral removal into your bionic implants."

"My…memories?" Valeria asked as she slowly got to her feet.

"Yes. Very imprecise things…memories." The brain rambled. "They aren't like holodisks. Half the time they're what we cobble together from bits and pieces with our imaginations filling in the blanks. I doubt I got them all but you should find your thinkability improved."

Valeria stared at the brain as it hovered before her, it's eye and mouth monitors swaying and tilting as fragmented images and emotions flooded her mind.

"You're…Mobius?" She finally stammered.

"Yes I am." Replied the brain. "Although that's not my original name. My last act before leaving the Think Tank was to hack the mainframe and remove all knowledge of our names. I also removed all references to time or anything outside Big Mountain."

"Why?" Valeria asked as she shook her head trying to adjust to a flood of images and emotions.

"To prevent my colleagues from ever leaving." Mobius replied. "Putting our brains in biogel suspension preserved out lives, but it didn't prevent deterioration completely. Not only had we lost our humanity, we were getting increasingly erratic. I've managed to maintain a degree of stability with combinations of Mentats and psycho, but I'm also beginning to lose cognitive function."

"So...you're going insane." Valeria whispered as she straightened and looked into Mobius' working eye monitor.

"Not in so many words but…yes." Mobius replied, his left eye monitor bobbing. "With the insatiable curiosity of the Think Tank coupled with a lack of moral restraint we could inflict terrible damage on what's left of the world. Then Dala merged with the mainframe and absorbed the knowledge of the others." Mobius' monitors sagged down and he was silent a moment.

"What did Dala do to me?" Valeria asked as she crossed her arms with a frown.

"Oh, the standard Lobotomite procedure I imagine. Removed parts of your cerebellum and replaced them with cybernetic implants. She appears to have added other implants to enhance your already considerable physical abilities. However you seem to be adapting and even regenerating from the procedure."

"Dala...sent me to destroy you." Valeria said quietly.

"Did she?" Mobius replied, his eye monitors bobbing. "Oh yes, I remember now. That's why my plan was so urgent."

"What plan?" Valeria asked, her eyes widening with confusion.

"Plan?" He asked, his monitors jerking toward her. "Oh yes, the raisin I wanted you here. I need you to destroy Big Mountain."

"What?" Valeria exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

"Yes." Mobius replied moving his monitors up and down. "I erected a repulsor fence around the mountain with Eight's help…supposedly to keep everything out but it was actually to keep us all in. I then edited our memories and put us all in a recursive loop to contain our curiosity about the outside world. After Dala destroyed the others, I came here and regularly broadcast threats to keep her occupied. But now I have to face the inescapable conclusion that my own deterioration is accelerating. Soon there will be nothing between Dala's madness and the world. Quite frankly the world isn't ready for that kind of too-far-thing taking. "

"Why do you need me?" Valeria asked as she lowered her arms to her sides.

"For the same raisins Dala did, including the ending my existence part. Many years ago we performed an experiment with sonic emissions that vaporized the top of Big Mountain. I need someone with…hands to recreate that experiment. There would be some time for you to attempt to get clear, but I can't predict how much with certainty."

"Won't Dala try to stop me?"

"Doubtless, but I blocked her broadcasts to your implants and I'll be trying to distract her which would give you some time. Dala hasn't found all the back-doors I created in the mainframe so I still have some access to the dome."

Mobius' monitors bobbed before Valeria as he floated silently waiting for her response. Valeria shook her head, still bewildered by the riot of memories whirling in her mind. But above all else she remembered Dala's power and madness.

"Okay Mobius." Valeria said grimly. "Tell me what I have to do."

* * *

The Think Tank dome was silent except for the click and hum of the banks of mainframes crowding the walls. On the giant monitor Dala's projected eye flickered as she waited with an unaccustomed feeling of anxiety. Her experiences with Teddy Bear had awakened emotions in her she had abandoned long ago when she entered her cybernetic state. They were not as strong as they were when she had biological components, but she found they still existed like faint afterimages. Even diminished she found experiencing emotion again intoxicating.

Dala's internal chronometer no longer functioned and she had no idea how long it had been since Teddy Bear had entered the X-42 facility. At first Dala had been angry at her silence, another wonderfully intense experience. Then she began to panic, trying to contact the Lobotomite with every radio frequency she could access. Now she waited fretting in silence, desperately wishing for the sweet release of watching Teddy Bear move in a disgusting yet fascinating display of formography. Dala replayed all the Data she had gathered on Teddy Bear, especially the video of her dancing awkwardly while toy bears stared blankly from their perches on stools arranged against the walls.

It wasn't enough. She was feeling a new emotion, one she didn't find comfortable at all. She regretted sending her Lobotomite to exterminate Mobius, and regret was something she never experienced before. Teddy Bear had become more than a weapon aimed at her nemesis, and she wanted her back to move, stretch and breathe before her monitors again.

"Where are you Teddy Bear?" She whispered, her voice echoing about the Dome.

"Hello Dala, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Mobius voice echoed cheerfully.

"Mobius!" Dala shouted, her eye jerking about the giant wall monitor. "Where are you?"

"I'm still in the Robowarfare facility. I have access to the Think Tank through channels you have yet to discover."

"Of course." Dala whispered as she began internal diagnostics to locate the digital pathways Mobius was exploiting.

"I assume you killed Teddy Bear." She announced with forced nonchalance. "She had promise but was only a Lobotomite after all."

"Actually she's still very much alive. I blocked your cerebral link and she is now on her way to fulfilling the mission I gave her."

"Impossible!" Dala thundered. "Teddy Bear would never defy me!"

"Teddy Bear? Oh I see, you formed an attachment with your test subject. How cute. I remember when Boros did that with Gable, although that didn't stop him from feeding him Psycho laced dog chow."

"What are you using Teddy Bear for?" Dala interrupted, her voice hissing with fury. "And why have the trains activated?"

"They have?" Mobius replied bemusedly. "Oh yes, I remember now. I started all the automatic systems to screen what I was up to."

"What is that? Sending your robot army to the Think Tank?"

"Oh I don't have an army anymore." Mobius replied regretfully. "Most of the robots still active have been sent to the rim to contain the worst of our excesses. Your Lobotomite destroyed the only robots I had left at the facility."

"What of your X-42 giant Roboscorpian!" Dala snapped.

"I shut that down years ago. When the main generator burned out I just couldn't sustain it any longer. Truly a wonderful device, but it consumed power like there was no tomorrow."

"Then what are you doing?" Dala thundered.

"I'm ending us Dala." Mobius replied sadly. "We are just ghosts of the old world living in the shadow of what we tried to achieve at Big Mountain."

"End us?" Dala shrilled, the giant eye moving frantically about the monitor. "How! There was a moment of silence and then Dala hissed. "Ah, now I understand. All I need to do is follow the power surges and…" There was a pause then Dala shrieked. "The big static! You are powering up the X-2 Transmitter!"

"You're still brilliant." Mobius observed quietly. "I used to have quite a…thing for you back then. Not very appropriate perhaps but you were so young and full of energy and dreams."

"All Lobotomites!" Dala howled. "Converge on the X-2 array! Destroy everything!"

Valeria looked up as Dala's voice echoed about the crater. She had been running along one of the conduits leading to the X-2 broadcast tower when she heard Dala's voice thunder from the Think Tank. Gritting her teeth she gripped the bulbous antenna she was carrying and started running faster. Her boots had limited purchase on the rounded steel surface, but speed was now more urgent then safety.

Rumbles and distant roars began to break the silence as Valeria saw the huge dish of the antenna array rising out the morning haze. Suddenly blasts of plasma and lasers flashed about her from the ground below. Valeria tried to stop, then skidded as her momentum hurled her from the pipe. Desperately twisting in mid air, Valeria was barely able to get her feet under her when she slammed into the ground, the X-2 antenna clattering to the ground nearby.

"I hope that didn't damage the antenna." Said Mobius voice from inside her head. "I'm afraid Dala's on to me."

Valeria lunged toward the antenna, then recoiled as plasma blasts filled the air before her. Striding toward her were three figures dressed in what appeared to be form fitting red space suits with clear spherical helmets. Fleshless skulls rolled and rattled inside the cracked and pitted spheres as they advanced with weapons blazing.

"Y-17 Trauma Override Harnesses." Mobius explained as Valeria dove for cover behind a pile of boulders.

"Brilliant design with the latest in synthetic musculature and artificial intelligence. They were meant to return their wearers to a medical facility if they became incapacitated. Clearly there were still a few bugs to be worked out. I always wondered what happened to the security team that tried to shut down the tower the last time it activated."

Valeria pulled out her hammer as energy beams sizzled and flashed around her stone shelter. The harnesses were already targeting her and she knew a headlong charge would only get her killed. This time she had no choice but to wait as Mobius continued to extol the virtues of the suits that were now trying to kill her. Suddenly the gunfire ceased as the suits apparently recognized that their fire was ineffective.

Valeria waited until she heard the scuff of dirt and gravel under booted feet, then with a shriek launched herself to the top of the boulder. For a split second the Y-17's were unable to adjust to the sudden shift in her position as she sprang from her perch and came down on top of them. A helmet and the skull within exploded from the terrible impact of her hammer, her momentum driving it down through the suit's torso. There was almost no resistance as the suit collapsed with crackle of electricity.

"The chest plate contains the main processor." Mobius advised as Valeria spun and decapitated the second Y-17 before finishing her spin and sending the last one flying like a rag doll. The headless suit fired as if nothing had occurred, forcing Valeria to release her hammer and block a shot to her face with her bracer. Unable to bring her hammer up in time, Valeria drove her heel into the Y-17's chest plate, denting it and flinging it on its back. Before it could get back to its feet, Valeria brought her hammer down smashing though steel, ancient bones, and synthetic muscle before imbedding it in the ground. With a wrench, Valeria freed her hammer from the spasming construct when an explosion behind her caused her duck as shrapnel filled the air.

"How fortunate." Mobius observed. "The kinetic energy must have detonated what was left of the pressurized gas in the Y-17's life support system."

Valeria slung her hammer and picked up the heavy antenna. She had no way to know if it was still functional, but no choice but to try.

"Oh dear. It seems that Dala has located my last backdoor. I'm afraid…"

Whatever Mobius intended to say next vanished in a burst of static followed by silence. Valeria looked up at the tower rising before her, the symbol "X2" illuminated by two searchlights set above the only entrance. Leaping up the stairs she found the door unlocked and opened it with a screech and a series of clangs. Inside the found the tower silent and dark with shattered remains of robots scattered on the floor. A steel staircase climbed the inside of the tower to a series of landings which led to a steel ladder descending from a hatch, and another steel door apparently opening to the outside.

Valeria gripped the antenna in the crook of one arm and began climbing the ladder one-handed. At the top she wrapped her leg through a rung and with a twist and a shove flung the hatch open. Sunlight poured into the stifling darkness as she flung the antenna through the opening then squeezed through to stand at the bottom of the bowl of the array.

"I know you can hear me Teddy Bear!" Dala's voice boomed across the crater. "Come back to the Dome and I will not have you vivisected!"

Valeria didn't hesitate as she ran up the curved slope to a steel ramp connecting the rim of the dish to the antenna rising above her.

"Mobius has deceived you Teddy Bear. I will not deceive you, I love you!"

Valeria ran along the ramp until she stood before the antenna and saw a socket surrounded by a curtain of cables.

"Love…is that what I'm feeling? How strange to feel emotion. Do you understand Teddy Bear, I need you!"

Valeria pushed the base of the antenna into the socket and with a shove and a twist inserted it. Immediately there was a hum as the antenna began to glow with a pulsing blue light.

"Ungrateful Lobotomite!" Dala howled. "Vivisection is too good for you! I took care of you, gave you a home and cybernetic implants, and in return you try to destroy me! Lobotomites KILL HER!"

Valeria leaped from the tower and slid to the bottom of the dish. The hum began to increase in volume as she ran to the hatch and without hesitation leaped through the hole. Her boots slammed into the steel walkway and Valeria looked over the rail to see a horde of filthy howling humanity crowding the stairway as they swarmed toward her. Bullets whipped past her as the Lobotomites with guns opened fire while Valeria whirled and ran for the outer door. She spun the wheel in the center and kicked the door open when a mass of stabbing hacking Lobotomites descended upon her. Valeria was driven through the door and into the rail of a walkway far above the floor of the crater. The rail buckled from the impact as blood poured down her body from dozens of stabs and cuts.

With a shriek of desperation Valeria's mind exploded into white-hot rage as with a superhuman surge she shoved the Lobotomites back. Driving the head and haft of her hammer into the filthy press of humanity, she crushed bones and flung bodies over the rails. With a scream and a sweep of her hammer Valeria drove the press back, than seized the door and slammed it shut. Wild-eyed and panting Valeria looked for a way to escape as the Lobotomites howled and hammered at the door. Looking over the railing she saw Lobotomites swarming toward the array from all directions, driven by the lash of Dala's will. Even through her rage, Valeria realized there was no way she could defeat so many.

Suddenly she heard the rumbling of wheels on steel rails. As the door buckled she looked down and saw the red boxcars of an automated train hurtling by far below. With an impulse born of desperation, Valeria turned and hurled herself over the rail as the door exploded open. She hit a boxcar feet first with numbing force and tumbled over the side. Only a desperate grasp on the rail kept her from flying off as the train hurtled down the track. Gasping with effort, Valeria pulled herself up and crouched on top of the car as she looked back. She could see the receding forms of the Lobotomites pouring off the array to their deaths as they tried to leap on the speeding cars in deranged pursuit.

Slinging her hammer, Valeria turned and started to crawl forward on the car as the train roared under a conduit pipe. Suddenly she heard a howl from above and a huge shadow leaped from the pipe to the train. Valeria found herself staring into the glowing red eyes of Borous as the giant hound snarled at her, foam dripping from its jaws as it's claws scrabbled on the shaking steel. Valeria seized the haft of her hammer snarled in reply before seeing the crater wall looming behind Boros. Before he could attack, Valeria rolled and flung herself off the train hitting the ground with bone crushing force as the train hurtled past into the sealed gate of the northern tunnel. With a thundering explosion the train obliterated the gate, its cars twisting like a beheaded snake. Valeria screamed as she desperately rolled toward the track as a car hurtled toward her. The ground shook from the impact as it missed her by inches and flipped into the canyon wall.

Spitting blood, Valeria staggered to her feet and limped along the sparking freight cars toward the smashed tunnel. Suddenly humming became audible over the dying echoes of the crash. Valeria looked up and saw the pylons ringing the crater glowing with a blue light. Gritting her teeth, she tried to limp faster than stopped as the snarling form of Borous crawled out of the wreckage before her.

Valeria unslung her hammer as the hound crawled toward her, his eyes blazing with hatred. Suddenly, with unexpected agility the cybernetic beast launched itself through the air as Valeria screamed and swung her hammer. Valeria was slammed to the ground with the massive body of Borous on top of her. Decapitated by the fury of her blow, the dog's corpse twitched as it showered her with blood and oil. The light from the pylons was now as bright as daylight as their sonic shriek began to pierce her skull. Valeria shoved Borous' corpse from her, then staggered into the dust-choked darkness of the tunnel as the shriek suddenly ceased. Valeria flung herself over the twisted wreckage as the deafening silence turned into a roar as an immense shock wave exploded across Big Mountain. Concrete bunkers collapsed like sand castles and the massive conduit pipes were torn loose and flung like straws. Valeria was running down the tunnel when the sonic wave slammed into the crater wall. Battered and bloodied, Valeria lurched through the choking darkness as the tunnel continued to shake and roar as it collapsed around her. Then Valeria saw a flash of light which she realized was the sun shining through the clouds of debris. A roar began to build around her as she desperately flung herself forward and dove under a heavy gate as the ceiling finally came down.

Valeria sprawled choking and coughing on the ancient tracks as a blue light filled the sky and a colossal roar echoed from the final destruction of Big Mountain.


End file.
